Project Manager April 2015 by Project Manager

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DISASTER RECOVERY Solid PM principles bring order when disaster strikes

CULTURAL CLASHES How to handle cross-cultural teams

MEGAPROJECTS Survive projects too big to fail

EXTREME PROJECTS

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• CONTENTS

APRIL-MAY ISSUE

24 DIFFERENT STROKES As the world

shrinks, we must learn to work with teammates whose cultural foundations challenge us

3 FIRST WORD 4 NEWS & VIEWS

28 FIND YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE

How can you create respect as the head of your team without slipping gears?

8 MEET THE MEMBER Alicia Aitken

talks through her influential role as Chief Project Officer at Telstra

30 BUILDING UP BACKERS Many

novice entrepreneurs learn the hard way that strong project management is essential to crowdfunding success

10 SURVIVING THE APOCALYPSE

From Hurricane Katrina to Black Saturday and the Christchurch quake, solid project-management principles bring order when disaster strikes

32 A QUESTION OF ETHICS Doing the

right thing is just as important as doing a project right

12 INSERTING FAB INTO PREFABRICATED BUILDING

Project managers are in high demand in an industry that’s shifting perceptions of its products from sweatboxes to stylish constructions

16 EXTREME PROJECTS From

the depths of the Mariana Trench to protecting Australia’s airspace or relieving West Africa’s Ebola suffering, project managers respond to complex situations with out-of-the-box thinking

22 TOO BIG TO FAIL 8 secrets to

successful megaproject management

AIPM REGULARS 34 THE AIPM UPDATE 36 THE OFFICE Despite our best planning efforts, we can end up with undefined projects in uncontrolled environments. So what’s a project management office to do? 38 CHAPTER CHAT 40 TALKING POINT David Bryant shares the importance of project management professionalism

CONTRIBUTORS

ADELINE TEOH

DEBORAH SINGERMAN

LEON GETTLER

Have you ever wondered what lies beneath—deep beneath the waves of the ocean? Like 11 kilometres below the surface of the water, where light can’t penetrate and pressure collapses most submarines like faulty cans of soft drink? Adeline Teoh dives deep with the project managers of Deepsea Challenge, led by James Cameron (yes, the director of The Abyss and Titanic). Turn to page 16.

Over the past few decades, we have witnessed some of the most apocalyptic disasters the world has ever seen. The Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, Fukushima, the Christchurch earthquakes, Ash Wednesday bushfires, Cyclone Tracy… As Deborah discovers in “Surviving the Apocalypse”, page 10, we can’t always stop a disaster, but strong project management can save lives and recover communities faster.

You know the feeling when a sponsor or stakeholder asks you to do something that causes you to pause? Maybe there’s a niggling sense that the approach or consideration isn’t quite right—you may need to cross an ethical bridge. But do you know where the boundaries lie? On page 32, Leon asks ethics experts how you can pinpoint those concerns and push back with confidence.

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Renewing your AIPM membership has never been easier

One of the features of our new website at aipm.com.au is a simplified membership renewals process. Members can now also renew their membership from their phone or tablet. By renewing your membership, you will also ensure that you continue to enjoy the benefits of being an AIPM member including: Member pricing at National and Regional events Maintaining eligibility for your RegPM certification Access to the new recorded events section of the website Access to our members-only LinkedIn group Members-only networking events Annual subscription to Project Manager magazine

BE AHEAD OF THE GAME AND HEAD TO AIPM.COM.AU TO FIND OUT MORE OR RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP TODAY

• FIRST WORD WHO ARE WE? Project Manager is the magazine of the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM).

Level 9, 139 Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000 (02) 8288 8700 info@aipm.com.au www.aipm.com.au National Manager Marketing and Communications Michael Martin Published by Hardie Grant Media 4/50 Yeo Street, Neutral Bay NSW 2089 (02) 9908 8222 www.hardiegrant.com.au

IAN SHARPE NATIONAL PRESIDENT

General Manager Clare Brundle Publisher Alison Crocker Managing Editor Sophie Hull Editor Nate Cochrane Art Director Dan Morley Designers Hayley Clark, Sheree James Production Jamie Galsim Advertising Manager Kerri Spillane (03) 8520 6444 kerrispillane@hardiegrant.com.au Cover illustration Carlo Giambarressi Print Offset Alpine Printing Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily endorsed by Project Manager magazine or the publishers. All material is copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the publishers.

UPCOMING ISSUES

xtreme projects can be those with high degrees of uncertainty, high technological complexities, sensitive political agendas and/or those in remote locations (adding to the other factors). Extreme projects require a critical expert level of stakeholder engagement. Project managers must not only have good communication skills but must be able to forge strong alliances. Many projects fail because they don’t have clear executive support or a clear remit. Many of these types of projects you can’t fully plan for because the requirements and scope evolve. You have to be iterative but there are often commercial or political pressures to define as much as possible upfront. Begin by identifying what success will look like beyond the project, to help clarify the real needs in play. These become your guiding beacon through complexity. One tough project I have worked on involved back-office outsourcing for a major company as a result of an American acquisition. We were working with multiple cultures, international players, a delivery partner and a very fragmented national organisation. Then the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on corporate governance came into play and muddied everything up mid-flight. Ultimately the organisation was doing it not only because of financial and compliance reasons, but because they wanted to be more efficient. It was critical to establish strong program leadership in order to achieve that. Strong technical and program management controls were required, as well as large helpings of resilience and adaptability from a high-performance team. The single biggest thing I’ve learned on difficult projects is that it is people problems, not technical problems, are the real challenge and take up more of your time. People are at the heart of what we are doing and you can accomplish a lot with the right staff and relationships. They will carry you through the challenges.

June-July: The scope issue August-Sept: We are seeking article ideas and project case studies on the theme of business transformation, as well as other topics that members would like explored, news items and experts to interview. Please email a short summary of your idea to Managing Editor Sophie Hull at communications@aipm.com.au.

Ian Sharpe, MAIPM, CPPD

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• NEWS

NEWS

1 Telstra Program Manager Nathan Richau.

2 Richau says fundraising for the MS Gong Ride benefits his own project practice. 3 Transformed Managing Director Michael Young.

HOW TO USE PERSONAL PROJECTS TO BOOST YOUR CAREER

4 Coaching a sports team can hone useful people skills.

2 Companies such as Google and Australian software vendor Atlassian have made much of giving their workers time off to pursue personal projects. These enrich employees’ lives and sometimes lead to business opportunities for their employers. Atlassian, for instance, uses personal projects to drive its ShipIt days, which spur innovation in the company. Here, AIPM members tell us what’s on their personal agenda this year, and how this informs their professional work.

NATHAN RICHAU, CPPM Tell us about the personal pursuits you have undertaken recently. I’m passionate about learning and selfdevelopment, so I’ve been planning my MBA and have created a shortlist of schools. And I just completed my ITIL V3 foundation certification—it took a few years. At home, I’ve written a high-level schedule to detail renovation work on my house; it’s a 90-year-old Californian bungalow, so it’s a massive undertaking. And I’m into Oztag and touch football, where I’m also the organiser, host and team manager. It takes a considerable effort to coordinate the team through the season.

You learn that everything is about context, that each situation is different and you must adapt in the role.” 4 AIPM.COM.AU

What carries over from your personal work into your professional practice? It is the personality and emotional intelligence I developed that provided the foundation for a successful career in project management. I keep a cool head and communicate effectively in most situations, and find this is even more the case now in my professional life. And I am a great arranger, which helps me get things done at work without the need to micromanage. Pursuing physical challenges, such as the annual MS Gong Ride, also provides intangible benefits, and I’m often in the top five per cent of fundraisers. How do you balance personal work and professional commitments? Time and cost are two of the three key constraints. Telstra has an excellent policy that supports flexible working— like part-time and from home as well as staggered start and finish times—and, in turn, helps Telstra staff balance work and personal lives. I will leverage this in future.

WANT MORE? Check out how Atlassian gives its workers room to grow through personal projects at http:/ / blogs.atlassian. com/2008/03/20_ time_experiment/

If you could spend six months on a private project, what would it be? I would love to fully renovate my home and add an extra floor. This would be an excellent opportunity to expand my stakeholder management skills and key project management disciplines. It would give me an immense sense of pride and achievement to finish a project such as this, and being responsible for managing a budget I funded would certainly put a different perspective on it. It would provide an insight into a completely new industry, in which I could apply my project management skills and no doubt take back into my professional life.

DHL’s new 90,000 square metre supply chain campus in Sydney has created 500 new jobs.

MICHAEL YOUNG, CPPD How does your personal content consumption influence your professional work? I tend to be attracted to magazines such as Project Manager and Harvard Business Review, and I read a lot of LinkedIn blogs. I’ve drifted away from specific project management blogs and podcasts because they tend to be very simple. Now I read more generalist business articles aimed at the C-level [senior executives] which is where I’m focusing my PhD research in studying how governments implement projects.

Images: MS Gong Ride, iStock

How do your personal pursuits flow into your professional practice? I’m involved with hockey—I play and my three kids play. My youngest daughter is representing the sport in state and national championships, so I get involved with coaching and managing teams and I run the girls section of the club. We have eight teams and 100 girls from 11 to 18 who are difficult to coordinate. While we have the usual operations and legal stuff and filling teams and coaches, we’re also embarking on a plan looking at, among other things, developing coaches and umpires. You learn that everything is about context, that each situation is different and you must adapt in the role. What project management skills do you bring to personal pursuits? Ours is a very strong, grassroots hockey club, so you have to create a vision and enlist support. You must have a structured way to tackle problems. While I don’t go in all guns blazing with Gantt charts, you can use similar ideas—just make them simpler. When you say ‘risk management’, people don’t understand, but if you phrase it as, ‘How would this make us come unstuck?’, they get what you’re saying.

DHL OPENS MASSIVE SYDNEY CAMPUS International logistics company DHL took the lid off its 90,000sqm Sydney campus, 45 minutes west of the city, part of an expansion that will see it double in size in the next few years as three more 30,000sqm sheds are built. The $120 million Horsley Park campus employs 500 workers and uses advanced automation and robotics to manage supply chains for 200 customers such as Dell, HP and those in the healthcare, car and retail industries. DHL also manages the supply chain for Qantas catering. The company is experiencing continued demand for warehousing space in Sydney. Steve Thompsett, DHL Vice President of Business Development, said the facility employs 10 project management officers to bring customers onboard and determine their scope and requirements. Implementations typically take six months and include IT integration for sharing real-time data between DHL’s warehouse and customer enterprise resource planning systems. “Our unique value proposition is we use the same system across the warehouse and transport so customers can track eight milestones with every delivery going through,” Thompsett says. Opening the campus, NSW Premier Mike Baird said the eyes of the world were on Western Sydney, a key political battleground in the state election. “Western Sydney is in a position where all infrastructure players across the world are looking at what’s happening here in the next five to 10 years, and they believe this is the infrastructure capital,” Baird says. “The infrastructure program in rail, roads or schools is unprecedented—[we’ll spend] over $20 billion here in the next 10 years.”

65th

PERTH’S RANK ON ECONOMIC RECOVERY SINCE THE GFC, according to the Brookings Institute. Western Australia’s capital leads Australia with one of the world’s highest GDPs per capita (AU$83,720) and employment growth since 2001 of 3.1 per cent. The city is is followed by Brisbane (84th), Melbourne (108th), Sydney (143rd) and Adelaide (145th). Zurich has the highest GDP per capita (US$82,410) while the Asia-Pacific has the fastest-growing regional GDP per capita (5.9 per cent). For 2013-14, Brookings ranked Macau (8 per cent GDP per capita growth) as the world’s fastest-growing city out of 300.

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• NEWS

SPOTLIGHT Mark Watney is in a spot. “I’m stranded on Mars,” says the NASA astronaut and engineer. “I have no way to communicate. Everyone thinks I’m dead. So yeah. I’m f-----.” Although a fictional story by debut novelist and computer scientist Andy Weir, The Martian is a realistic account of what life on Mars’ Acidalia Planitia would be for a future Robinson Crusoe. Weir dissects what it takes to survive in this gripping account of stoic heroism 225-million kilometres from home. Look out for the film version, starring Matt Damon. www.andyweirauthor.com

On average, 120 metres of tunnel are cut every week for the North West Rail Link.

6 AIPM.COM.AU

Victoria’s Labor Government has restarted plans for a major rail project, drilling two nine-kilometre underground rail tunnels to transform Melbourne’s public transit system by linking the Sunbury and Cranbourne/ Pakenham rail lines. The government provided $40 million from Labor’s $300 million election pledge to kickstart the Melbourne Metro Rail Authority to oversee the project, expected to break ground in 2018. During peak build, the government expects it to create 3500 jobs. It will have five new underground stations at Arden, Parkville, north and south of the CBD and in the Domain. It links to Melbourne’s university and hospital precinct, and to major employment centres in Parkville and St Kilda Road, just north of the CBD. Project consultation and a business case update has started; an expression of interest is set to be released next year. “It’s the relief valve that ends the traffic jam in the City Loop so more trains can run on every line,” said Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. In NSW, another milestone in the North West Rail Link development (pictured below) was hit as tunnel-boring machine Elizabeth broke into the Norwest Station box, covering 2.1 kilometres since September. NSW Premier Mike Baird said the project, due to start service in 2019, is ahead of schedule and $300 million under budget. But in the city centre, miscommunication over early works on the George Street light rail left project planners red-faced as buses banked up on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, delaying Monday morning peak commuters by up to 90 minutes.

New power taps into people’s growing capacity and desire to participate in ways that go beyond consumption.” Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms

WHAT WE’RE READING: UNDERSTANDING ‘NEW POWER’ Do you envision a techno utopia that empowers the everyman, or are you of the cynical view that nothing really changes? Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms say both views are wrong. Writing in Harvard Business Review (Dec 2014), the authors say the distinction is really between old power that “like a currency held by a few” and new power that is “like a current made by many, open and participatory”. Summing up many of the struggles going on today, from copyright to stakeholder management, they write: “Old power models tend to require little more than consumption. A magazine asks readers to renew their subscriptions, a manufacturer asks customers to buy its shoes. But new power taps into people’s growing capacity and desire to participate in ways that go beyond consumption.” It’s important for project managers to grasp the differences because they inform how western society shares and shapes beliefs, funds projects, produces goods and services and, ultimately, who owns the output. The authors propose frameworks for conceptualising the power struggle and how to place organisations in a quadrant bound by qualities such as Connectors, Crowds, Castles and Cheerleaders. New power also has an impact on governance and community, they write. One of the interesting transformations is that of US President Barack Obama, who sprang into the White House on the back of an unprecedented new power campaign informed by big data from social media, but who, once in office, slipped back into a regressive old power model. “The battle ahead, whether you prefer old or new power values, will be about who can control and shape society’s essential systems and structures.”

Images: Wikicommons; Transport for NSW

VICTORIA FAST-TRACKS RAIL WHILE NSW BREAKS THROUGH

5 1 0 2 M P E I C A NFEREN Ctâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;sOall I

t r a b o H n i g in n e p p ha

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

JAN CHODAS

Director for the Office of Safety and Mission Success, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION

Save $100 on a member early bird fees if you register before 15 July 2015 and go into the draw to WIN a Tasmanian Experience Pack.

PETER NEWMAN

Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University and Director of Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute

GALA DINNER

The National Project Management Achievement Awards winners will be announced at the Gala Dinner on Tuesday 13 October 2015

PRU SANDERSON

CEO of the Design Institute of Australia

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GREAT REASONS TO ATTEND THE AIPM 2015 CONFERENCE

If you need a little help, visit the AIPM website and download our Business Case document.

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• MEET THE MEMBER

If we can learn from one another, that’s an incredibly rich environment to work in. ALICIA AITKEN CHIEF PROJECT OFFICER TELSTRA, MAIPM

licia Aitken, MAIPM, PhD, says she is not only the first Chief Project Officer at Telstra, but also the first among Australian companies. Dr Aitken, who reports to the Executive Director for Capital Planning and Delivery, drives project delivery excellence through the telecommunications company that recorded a $26.3 billion income last year. She says her role is about “influence as opposed to authority; to bring people on a journey of continuous improvement”. “I talk to Telstra people, finding out what works and what to improve,” she says. “And I ensure that we can deliver on our capital portfolio.” Walk us through today’s calendar—what’s on your agenda? On a normal day I have eight to 10 meetings. I spend 80 per cent of my time talking to people in my project delivery community, from the CEO and leadership team to project practitioners in the field. I started the day talking to a small team of principal project specialists who run our biggest and most risky projects. Next, I met a colleague with whom I’m developing a formal way to review projects before they go off the rails. At 10am I attended the portfolio management committee that reviews projects over $5 million. It was great to hear a project had gone through its fourth gate and was reporting back lessons that I can now apply elsewhere in Telstra. My 11am meeting was to discuss a benefits framework community-ofpractitioners event and then I had a lunch meeting with one of our portfolio heads. In the afternoon, we discussd with the organisational development unit how the sponsor role is being defined in relation to change initiatives. And I finished off the day with a meeting to discuss how to serve our customers better.

What advice do you have for project managers starting out? Talk to your stakeholders as often and as broadly as you can. The people side of managing projects is incredibly important and critical to success. In 10 years I will be… At Telstra, looking back at how smoothly our projects run. Failure or success: which is the best teacher? Failure. My first business was selling coffee on the internet before anyone had the internet in Australia. I learned that you need to be aware of your distribution channels.

8 AIPM.COM.AU

If you could only work on one project for a year at Telstra, what would it be and why? Telstra’s company-wide community-of-practitioners project is the most exciting thing I’m working on. It brings together every project practitioner to share stories about what is happening in the field. The greatest joy I get from this role is to bring people together, because we have a wealth of knowledge and skills in this organisation. If we can learn from one another, that’s an incredibly rich environment to work in. If you could go back to school for a year, what would you study and why? I’d study psychology as an undergraduate. My PhD was about how project managers cope with stress, but successful projects spring from bringing teams of people together, so understanding how that works is of great interest to me. If you could hire someone with an unconventional skill, what would that be? A designer or someone with a degree in visual communications. Traditional project management uses a lot of words and traffic lights to convey concepts, but there’s greater scope for creativity in how we visually represent vision and progress to stakeholders. How is the AIPM helping Telstra with its project management? It’s really important for Telstra to connect to the outside world in terms of project management trends and thought leadership. We’re looking forward to participating in the Project Management Achievement Awards, the executive lunch series and encouraging our project managers to attend AIPM chapter events.

Words: Nate Cochrane

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• THOUGHT LEADER

SURVIVING THE APOCALYPSE

FROM HURRICANE KATRINA TO BLACK SATURDAY AND THE CHRISTCHURCH QUAKE, SOLID PROJECT-MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES BRING ORDER WHEN DISASTER STRIKES WORDS DEBORAH SINGERMAN AND NATE COCHRANE

10 AIPM.COM.AU

The first step is to acknowledge that the worst occurs after the initial crisis, he says. “Floods do damage underground that collapses infrastructure. Japan’s nuclear crisis reached far beyond those reactors set off by the tsunami. Disaster managers have to prepare for continuing trauma.” Restoration of the eco-regional system needs long-term assessment of whether structures can still be supported and rebuilt on. “As the Mississippi levees showed, the river is mightier than the bulwarks erected by man,” Professor Blakely says. Likewise, Fukushima’s combined problems— nuclear, water, terrain, economic, an ageing population—questioned the rebuilding. They have decided to do so in the same province but not the same place, he says. Since Katrina, when events cover an entire region rather than a single city, Professor Blakely is convinced that a regional recovery institution is absolutely necessary, especially as most disasters cross local government lines. For instance, the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority established after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake initially ignored affected surrounding areas. It later became a wider ranging agency within government. He advises the use of seasoned international experts from many disciplines. He praises the Dutch who brought their experience to Katrina, which cut water pressure on the levees: “You are not just building back, you are building back better.” Information systems help agencies organise and measure data and provide “fresh analysis and new ways to create a better, safer future, and healthy community”, he says. Infrastructure programs should look beyond repairing what was there, to technologies for climate change and severe weather events, such as digging deeper or wider trenches for extra

1 1 The frightening blaze on Black Saturday in Labertouche, Victoria, in February 2009. 2 Search and rescue workers examine a building site after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Christchurch in 2011. 3 Professor Blakely (pictured right) says hands-on community engagement is key to making relevant and worthwhile recovery efforts.

Images: Newspix; Thinkstock

hen a bushfire, earthquake, flood, cyclone or other natural disaster razes communities and flattens land, livelihoods and hopes, the need to rebuild focuses on bricks and mortar. But Professor Ed Blakely has found that long-term and holistic appraisals of the social, economic and community fabric matter as much as physical reconstruction. Local capacities may not be enough to make a strong recovery, says the Honorary Professor in Urban Policy at Sydney University’s US Studies Centre. Professor Blakely was also principal adviser and consultant on six disasters that made headlines the world over. He knows the World Bank and others came into Aceh, Indonesia, after the 2004 Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami with international information, but very little that was local. “They had the physical geoinformation systems, the terrain and all that, but they forgot about the social information: who owns what? Who are the biggest players in town? How do we get them on side? They decided to build away from the water and the fishermen said ‘to hell with that’ and built back there because that is how they made their living.” Professor Blakely has written a template of management steps for recovery, which are still his best practises reference point for project and program managers. They include lessons from New Orleans (where he was Director of the Office of Recovery and Development Administration following Hurricane Katrina) to Japan and nuclear crises. There are three recovery phases: Initial rescue to save lives and stabilise property. Emergency, concentrating on temporary housing and restoration of power, water and security. Rebuilding with real targets and recovery objectives for an entire community.

A RAPID-ACTION PLAN TO RECOVERY

The first step is to acknowledge that the worst occurs after the initial crisis.”

As a young project manager stationed in the wreckage of Cyclone Tracy after it tore the heart out of Darwin on Christmas Eve in 1974, Paul Steinfort, FAIPM, set his life’s work on helping disaster survivors recover from tragedy. For his doctorate, he wrote a six-step survival guide to help project managers work around even the worst tragedy. Step 1—Rapid assessment: What are the environment, project context, purpose and issues involved? Step 2—Engage stakeholders: Define who is involved and the key program outcomes. Step 3—Value communication: Resolve and agree key stakeholder values. Step 4—Plan feasible outputs: Define value-based project outputs to deliver desired outcomes. Step 5—Monitor: Track outputs or milestones to identify if they are being met. Step 6—Evaluate: Reflect on the outcomes—were they met? If not, why? “It’s like triaging [an emergency patient], but with triaging you’ll send people to certain points [for treatment],”

Steinfort explains. “With the post-disaster situation, everyone is in it together.” Steinfort says a limitation of traditional construction approaches to disaster recovery is a focus on building infrastructure, but it’s social and human issues that are most complex. “You can build a house, but if people don’t want to live there it’s not very successful.” Compounding issues is the fact that in a disaster-recovery project, the person who provides the cash isn’t the client. In the case of the Black Saturday bushfires, Australians donated more than $400 million to Marysville, but the Red Cross charter doesn’t allow for spending on commercial projects, he says. Project managers must also be wary of politicians’ tendencies to grab the limelight. “Governments are looking at their position and not so much what the victims want, but what they want to be seen to be doing.” “There were [difficult] issues to be resolved [in Marysville] but the government didn’t want that in front of the press. So if we had a community meeting they wouldn’t deal with the deeper issues because they were ugly”, which damaged broader community engagement, Steinfort says.

underground capacity. And neighbourhoods need future-proofing, with incentives for residents to upgrade houses with the best insulation, solar and water systems. He cites the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rebuild by Design, written after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which involves civic leaders and communities discussing and rethinking resilience before disaster strikes. Professor Blakely is wary of officials who think they are “lords and masters rather than facilitators for other people”. He would rather consult with the community, and is not surprised that a centre and sports hall at Marysville in Victoria built after the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009— reportedly with limited community input—are underused, especially compared with a much-loved reopened café. New Orleans had the highest suicide rate in the US after Katrina. But building playgrounds and dog parks for people of different incomes and races cut mental-health problems. Management style, Blakely suggests, is also a factor. When he rode his bicycle through New Orleans, people said to him this was the first time a government official had listened to them on their home turf.

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• CONSTRUCTION PREFABRICATION 2

PROJECT MANAGERS ARE IN HIGH DEMAND IN AN INDUSTRY THAT’S SHIFTING PERCEPTIONS OF ITS PRODUCTS FROM SWEATBOXES TO STYLISH CONSTRUCTIONS

FAB PREFAB WORDS NATE COCHRANE

1 1 Harwyn pods come in four sizes, all fully installed with lights and electricity.

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o see a Harwyn pod hanging from a crane, swaying centimetres from powerlines, is to know the promise and drawback of prefabricated buildings. Lee Ajzenman, owner of Core Physio + Pilates, needed an office but had limited site access; she’s on the top floor of a building under a heritage overlay with a slim balcony for her new digs. But hoisting the readymade office presented other problems, such as lifting the 1.5-tonne prefabricated pod over obstacles while controlling the street. Just to complicate matters, Ajzenman’s building obscured the crane operator’s view, with mere centimetres of clearance either way. Harwyn is at the head of a $4.6 billion a year prefabricated or offsite construction industry

that is growing at twice the rate of general construction. Its providers are stepping into the breach caused by car factory closures. For project managers, prefab cuts risk and time by shifting outside work undercover to controlled factories, eliminating delivery variables. Prefab runs from complete (readymade or ‘volumetric’) designs such as Harwyn’s, to manufactured units like bathrooms and structural insulated panels. Harwyn’s pod is a Lego-like space that is assembled and ready to lower into place with appliances and fittings—even desks and mood lights. Harwyn founder Jason Fremder is considering clicking pods together to create even more elaborate constructions. This is not like your childhood memories of sweltering in demountables, nor is it roughand-ready mine lodgings. Harwyn’s pod is more like a car with millimetre tolerances using airplane aluminium. Fremder’s start-up evolved from his own need for space when the arrival of his baby daughter evicted him from his home office. It took just 10 months to go from sketches drawn by Fremder’s business partner and father-inlaw, Melbourne architect Selwyn Blackstone, to opening their Abbotsford, Victoria, showroom. Fremder aims for similar speed in provisioning pods on customer sites by aiming for a ‘one-click’ Amazon‑like experience. “My idea of where we’ve done well is when someone goes to a friend’s place who has a Harwyn and they say, ‘I’m so lazy, I’ll just go to the website and the next day it’s in my yard’.”

$228bn

Images: courtesy of Hickory; Harwyn

PROJECTED CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY IN 2015 Source: ACIF

Harwyn employs three staff at its factory and will scale as sales lift. Perceptions that prefabricated buildings are ugly and second-rate are 4 one of the biggest hurdles for the industry. But Fremder says prefab cuts building time and risk from the equation. “Rather than put it together on site, where quality control can easily slip, in a factory there’s no weather, rain or mud—it’s all the right tools and nothing is missed.” The challenges in rapid delivery and upfront planning lend themselves to a project manager because there’s less wiggle room once the build starts. But there is a compelling national benefits case for prefab in the construction sector that PricewaterhouseCoopers laments is a “serial productivity underperformer”. A 1 per cent efficiency gain would return a GDP dividend of $1.25 billion. But while the benefits are clear, the “Australian residential industry sector has largely failed to embrace prefab elements”, the analyst writes. Melbourne architect and Grand Designs Australia host Peter Maddison sees prefab as an evolutionary, rather than a disruptive, method. One of Maddison’s first projects 30 years ago with architect Peter McIntyre was hauling readymade lodges into the snow. “We did the first prefab houses for Dinner Plain at Mount Hotham,” Maddison says. “We built the whole house in a factory and put it on the back of a prime mover. We found the ability to get those buildings off the truck and onto an alpine environment was a problem.

DEFINITION

5 2 Hickory erected all 3:East apartment modules in Melbourne in 11 working days. 3 The Schaller Studio in Bendigo, with 128 rooms made up of 66 prefab units, was built offsite by Hickory.

4 Melbourne architect Peter Maddison sees enormous opportunity for prefabrication in Australia, especially in remote areas. 5 Hickory’s One9 apartments boast a six-star energy rating thanks to double-glazed windows for superior thermal and acoustic performance, grey water recycling and solar hot‑water panels on the roof.

PREFABRICATED: Any part of a building fabricated at a place other than its final location. Also: off-site construction, modern methods of construction, modular, unitised, volumetric, panelised, kit of parts, flatpack, system-built (US). Fundamentally, fabrication denotes more than preparation of building materials into their customary form, such as dimensioned timber; fabrication occurs when the timber is assembled into roof trusses. Source: PrefabAus

project MANAGER 13

• CONSTRUCTION PREFABRICATION

The 10-storey, 23-apartment Forte building in Melbourne’s Docklands was a Lend Lease experiment into lighter materials that could have popped out of an IKEA catalogue. The 32-metre tower is the world’s tallest apartment building, and Australia’s first made with cross-laminated timber. Structural CLT is like plywood, made up of glued and pressed perpendicular timber panels cut to shape on a computer-controlled cutting machine driven by design software. Forte has 759 such panels of sustainable European spruce weighing 485 tonnes. Made in Europe, they were loaded into 25 containers like flatpack furniture—complete with screws and angle brackets. An advantage of wood, apart from the lower carbon

footprint than concrete, is it allows for on-site rejigging, says Andrew Nieland, Head of Timber Solutions at Lend Lease. “A benefit of timber is it’s very workable material,” Nieland says. “Say you hadn’t counted for disability

access on a floor, you can take a chainsaw and create [a wider opening].” Although PMs might have to change their mindset, their ability to spot potential problems upfront is in great demand, Nieland says. “Project managers

“The prefabrication of a factory with all its controls doesn’t go together as well as needed on a building site. There’s often a lot of nip and tuck to make it fit.” For the first episode of season five, Maddison filmed the Graceville container house, built after the Queensland floods. “The owners wanted an economical and robust solution,” he says. And while he sees enormous opportunity for prefab, especially in remote areas lacking skills, he cautions they struggle to slip into their surroundings. “A purpose-built house is more plastic and, for instance, integrates into a rock outcrop.” Prefab lends itself to efficiency economies where items are stamped out on a production line, he says. Hickory is leveraging scale economies in prefab, from shower pods for hotels to finished buildings such as Little Hero, a nine-storey apartment block erected in 20 days over the top of a difficult power substation in Melbourne’s CBD. The lighter, less-invasive prefab design was the only way to make the site economic, says Hickory Business Development Manager Damien Crough. “You couldn’t have got a more difficult site,” Crough says of the site that since 1951 has had a substation on it that powers a fifth of the CBD.

14 AIPM.COM.AU

have to appreciate the mindset of moving from onsite construction to onsite assembly—construction starts in the factory.” But it’s also where a “project manager skillset is more important”. And it cuts risk; “because you reduce onsite decisionmaking, you have a more resolved and documented design upfront.” Lend Lease has built a library in Docklands using a similar process, and Nieland sees a time when prefab could become a tradeable good. “If you look at other industries, there’s been a lot of innovation and disruptive technological changes over the past two decades. By comparison, there hasn’t been that much in construction and it’s an emerging trend. We’ll see more of these new construction ways to deliver buildings.” 6 Building bathrooms off-site whilst on-site construction progresses can cut a project’s schedule by up to 30 per cent, reports Hickory.

WANT MORE? Watch Harwyn crane Lee Ajzenman’s new office three storeys up on a busy Melbourne street. http:/ /youtu.be/ GO4gUp0SYgQ

$1.25bn

POTENTIAL HIGHER GDP FROM 1 PER CENT LIFT IN CONSTRUCTION EFFICIENCY Source: PwC

6 “So to deliver a building with new technology on an extremely difficult site was ballsy.” Hickory used Melbourne architect Nonda Katsalidis’ Unitised construction method. Crough says the method has evolved and buildings twice as tall can use volumetric modules. Crough, who is also founding director of industry peak body PrefabAUS, which has 200 members, says Melbourne’s manufacturing and design heritage helped its prefab industry accrete to critical mass. He says prefab owes its rise to information technology: “You couldn’t do it without the building information modelling we have now. To be able to design, procure and manufacture within the tolerances you need, BIM has allowed more accurate and extensive prefabrication.” And although project managers “have to engage and plan at the beginning of the project rather than as an afterthought”, the benefits are significant as up to a dozen trades are removed from fitting out bathrooms, for instance. “Running the job and site conditions, it’s much cleaner, much neater, there’s less waste on site because you don’t have to take a toilet up and unwrap it and take the waste back down.” He says the risk of Hickory as a single-source supplier of prefabricated pods is also declining now there are a few companies making them. “Typically, project managers come to us too late,” he says. “A lot of the time, they might be reluctant to do it unless they’re given direction from their clients. “And in the past the product wasn’t fantastic, but now there are so many good manufacturers out there doing great things. Don’t dismiss it without taking time to investigate it.”

Images: courtesy of Lend Lease; Hickory; Laing O’Rourke ; Futureform Modular

FLAT-PACK HIGH-RISE

7 and 8 The 222-metre Leadenhall building, London. Around 85 per cent of the building structure was manufactured off site.

be explored and analysed for prefabrication to be effective. We call this our systems approach.

INTEGRATING PREFAB CONSTRUCTION Amy Marks is a leading expert in off-site and modern methods of construction. She is the president of XSite Modular, a US consultancy specialising in prefabricated projects, and consults to the Singapore Building and Construction Authority. • What are best practices for prefabricated construction? And what are the best examples of buildings using volumetric prefab construction around the world? Best practices in off-site usually start by working in an integrated approach that includes an off-site expert or consultant who has broad project experience to guide the process. Some high profile projects using prefabrication in many of their building systems include the Leadenhall building (Laing O’Rourke, UK) and Parkland Hospital (Balfour Beatty, US).

And there are examples in Asia with Broad Group and many of the buildings approved by the Building and Construction Authority in Singapore. As for volumetric construction, there are hundreds of projects including schools, data centres, hospitals, hotels and multistorey houses. Some high profile projects include Yale University (US), the Stack (US), Muhlenberg College (US), Victoria Hall (UK), and Hickory has some great examples in Australia.

• What mistakes do project managers schooled in traditional construction typically make when dealing with prefab for the first time? One of the largest challenges hindering project managers and construction firms new to off-site is their traditional processes aren’t based on an alignment and integration of stakeholders including owners, architects, engineers and off-site

professionals at ‘moment zero’. Traditional design and procurement processes were not created to enable off-site construction. They need to incorporate and optimise off-site elements into their processes and design and target cost models from day one. This changes their value proposition in every phase including business acquisition, design, procurement, and operations. • What are the greatest benefits for the project manager in integrating prefab construction into their plans? There are many benefits for using off-site, but the emphasis for one over the other will change based the values of the team and off-site solutions in the project. In general, the benefits include: Waste reduction and reduced risk: Working in a controlled environment means there is less waste in the construction of building elements and the waste that is generated can be reused more efficiently. Schedule certainty and schedule reductions: These are achieved by targeting activities on the critical path with off-site solutions. The realisation of the benefit is often by concurrently building

elements on the critical path and then assembling on-site. Quality: Off-site elements consistently demonstrate a higher level of quality than conventional construction, reducing the time and energy spent on the punch-list. Safety: Elements constructed in a controlled environment are produced more efficiently and safely, supported by the fact that manufacturing is six times safer than conventional construction. Employee retention: Optimising off-site is a skill that must be learned and practised. Unlike other innovations in our industry, off-site touches all aspects of the project lifecycle allowing all employees to contribute. Employees like to learn new skills especially those in emerging trends. Cost certainty and potential cost reductions: If using off-site is the same cost as traditional construction, the benefits above would certainly show a clear advantage to using off-site.

9 and 10 Victoria Hall in Wembley, England is a 19-storey, 438-room student residence by Futureform Modular.

• How do project managers integrate prefab in their design thinking? Partnering with firms that have experience in these areas is of great benefit to project managers and companies looking to integrate these technologies into their processes. XSite uses a continuum of off-site including intelligent materials, components, non-volumetric and volumetric sub-assemblies and modules. It’s important that prefabrication across the continuum and systems project MANAGER 15

DEEPSEA CHALLENGER TRAVELLED ALMOST

11KM BELOW SEA LEVEL 16 AIPM.COM.AU

Image © Mark Thiessen/National Geographic

EXTREME FACT!

• COVER STORY

BRINGING SANITY TO

EXTREME PROJECTS FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE MARIANA TRENCH TO PROTECTING AUSTRALIA’S AIRSPACE OR RELIEVING WEST AFRICA’S EBOLA SUFFERING, PROJECT MANAGERS RESPOND TO COMPLEX SITUATIONS WITH OUT-OF-THE-BOX THINKING WORDS NATE COCHRANE AND ADELINE TEOH

Combining the world’s deepest dive with filming for Deepsea Challenge 3D meant creating a host of custom technology and equipment.

hen filmmaker James Cameron said he was taking a submersible to the deepest part of the ocean—Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, almost 11 kilometres down—it was the manifestation of his dream to be an explorer. Films such as The Abyss and Titanic conveyed his ocean obsession and three underwater documentaries whetted his appetite for the most extreme underwater challenge of all. The only prior full-ocean-depth manned descent (Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh of the Trieste) was in 1960, and neither footage nor scientific samples exist from the expedition. Success for the Deepsea Challenge project meant not only building a submersible that could travel to Challenger Deep and return to the surface intact, but also keep Cameron safe, film the experience for a big-screen documentary and collect samples for scientific study.

Cameron’s expedition is an example of the extreme projects that project managers increasingly confront. Such extreme projects might not be big on a conventional scale— Cameron’s was restricted mostly to a ship and her crew—but they have elements that are complex, dynamic or extremely constrained. Try building a hospital—there are complicated elements but the entire project can be observed as a whole and followed through in a logical series of events to its conclusion. Try building a hospital in the midst of an Ebola outbreak, when there is no supply chain, time is at a premium because people are getting infected and dying while the disease spreads and there is no existing infrastructure—now you are in the realm of an extreme project. (See how World Food Programme responds to Ebola on the page 20.) In the case of the Deepsea Challenge project, the constraints were also intense; in addition to developing new technology to a strict timeline— signed on to produce Avatar sequels, Cameron

project MANAGER 17

1 Arthur Mamalis says the uncertainty of the state of the original system made estimating outcomes for the Vigilare project difficult. 2 Vigilare combines surveillance information in near real-time, from a wide variety of sources, to two RAAF centres.

EXTREME FACT!

$191M BOEING’S VIGILARE CONTRACT TOTAL

3 Julien Pollack identified in their book Tools for Complex Projects: structural (interdependencies between the crew), technical (technology had to be invented), directional (a geographically dispersed team) and temporal (Cameron had to get back to work on a new film). Recognising where complexity lies helps those managing extreme projects to deploy the correct strategy: identify critical review points, phase lengths, governance, resources, scheduling and budgeting, Remington and Pollack note.

NATIONAL SURVEILLANCE ON THE RADAR These factors were also present when Boeing stepped in to upgrade Australia’s ageing WARDEN (Wide Area Regional Defence Environment Network) early warning air and ground defence system. The replacement, Project Air 5333 ‘Vigilare’ $260 million command and control (C2) network, spans the continent from the middle of the Indian Ocean to the Western Pacific, north to the Timor Sea and down to the Southern Ocean. And it had to integrate disparate and often discrete systems that were poorly documented or never intended to work together. “WARDEN was a kludge of computer hardware and software systems with a central tracker they worked around to compile the air

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Images: © Mark Thiessen/National Geographic; Commonwealth of Australia

had to dive before September 2012—the project team was also dispersed across Australia and the US. Bruce Sutphen, US project manager for the Deepsea Challenger, says although the project began in 2005, the US team only started in 2011 when Cameron expedited the project with a team to take care of “the scaled modelling, composite development, hydrodynamic stability, scientific acquisition and robotics”. Coming in partway through the project was itself demanding, where the key was “the ability to break the tasks down into their fundamental elements upfront”, Sutphen says. “You have to do the foundation work so everyone has an understanding of what we’re trying to achieve and the criteria in terms of scheduling, funding and expectations.” Essential to success was recruiting people responsible for their part who also understood the big picture. “A lot of engineers get stuck in the minutiae, and when you get stuck in the minutiae you’re missing the big gains that can be made. You have to be very perceptive with the time you’re allotted,” Sutphen says. Setbacks became learning curves. When a practise dive caused a major system failure, the crew analysed the nature of the failure and used it to improve the technology. “They were not afraid to make mistakes, they didn’t take things for granted,” he says. Cameron’s historic dive on March 26, 2012 satisfied the safety, science and screen requirements of the project. Since then, team members have gone on to advise other organisations in related areas, including Richard Branson’s Virgin Oceanic team. “Many of the innovations made during the Deepsea Challenger design, testing, fabrication and operation are so different to current subsea industry technologies and methodologies that it could take nearly 10 years before their benefits are fully understood and implemented across the industry,” Sutphen says. The film, Deepsea Challenge 3D, was released last year. The website, www.deepseachallenge.com, charts the project from building the submersible to the expedition outcomes. Cameron’s expedition had some of the four key elements of complexity Kaye Remington and

They were not afraid to make mistakes, they didn’t take things for granted.” – Bruce Sutphen, US project manager for the Deepsea Challenger

3 James Cameron preparing for the 10,908-metre solo dive to the deepest known place under the sea, and the filming of Deepsea Challenge 3D.

4 picture from different sources,” says former Boeing program director on the Vigilare project, Arthur Mamalis. “Vigilare was to do the same thing in a more modern way that was underpinned by a good system engineering discipline and management.” Mamalis, who is now Boeing’s Senior Manager Program Management, says it’s difficult to stitch together a system that isn’t documented. “When a system is kludged together, to try to architect an evolution of that system would require a lot of resources because it wasn’t documented in a consistent way through a normal systemengineering life cycle.” Vigilare works on a hub and spokes model: data like flights and radar pings come into a central tracker that makes sense of the often conflicting and contradictory input, arriving at

4 Cameron’s submersible packs in more than 180 systems, including batteries and sonar.

a “level of confidence” that what the operator sees on their screen is a particular type of craft or contact. Sources include civil and military air-traffic control radars, tactical data networks, the Jindalee Operational Radar Network, Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft and navy ships. And it works with satellites, drones and data sources supplied by intelligence agencies. “You might have three different radars showing the same civilian aircraft but they’re offset,” Mamalis says. “The tracker shows that based on the algorithm and criteria so [the operator has] confidence they’re the same thing and it presents it in graphical form.” He says that takes the busyness out of identifying objects. “What makes Vigilare complex or extreme is there were many external interfaces to the system.” Boeing often had to rely on its client, the Australian Government’s Department of Defence, to supply information because Boeing had no formal or direct relationship with the other vendors. “The complexity is the relationships with these other agencies,” he says. Boeing built a testbed to verify the information it was supplied and to reverse engineer from inputs. “You have an uncertain outcome for any stimulus; if I have two moving parts and I’m trying to marry them up, it’s difficult to find the sweet spot,” Mamalis explains. At its peak, Vigilare employed 200 workers and did its main engineering work in Brisbane. The government awarded Boeing the initial $125 million contract in 2004 and it was commissioned on September 2, 2010. On July 1, 2013, the government awarded Boeing a five-year $66.7 million support contract. Mamalis acknowledges what any home renovator would say: there’s no way to know what you’ll encounter until you tear up the carpet and look under the floorboards. The uncertainty of the state of the original WARDEN system made estimating costs a further factor in the project’s complexity. “One of the aspects that made it difficult was the commercial arrangement we had with our customer,” he says. “We had a fixed-price contract; anything over and above what we priced we had to eat ourselves. And as far as the customer is concerned, schedule is king.”

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WANT TO HELP? You can donate to the WFP Ebola emergency appeal at https:/ /give. wfp.org/5126

EBOLA CRISIS: WEST AFRICA RUNS OUT OF TIME

Time was also the critical factor in the World Food Programme’s Ebola response to the crisis in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Since it deployed in

Ebola is very different. The response had to be built from projections on how the outbreak could spread, and responders have to adapt constantly to an unpredictable situation.” – Donaig Le Du, World Food Programme

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6 West Africa last August, the World Food Programme (WFP) has built four pillars of support: 1. Delivering food and nutrition as well as responding to the health crisis; 2. Mitigating the impact of the health emergency on food security; 3. Ensuring the movement of partner staff and materials; 4. Providing common services and infrastructure support for health partners. Since its arrival, WFP has reached 2.5 million people, transported 9070 responders on four airplanes and two helicopters, and since September hauled at least 35,000m3 of cargo. A key WFP contribution was building two Ebola treatment units (disposable hospitals) to care for 400 patients at a time in the Liberian capital of Monrovia. It levelled the ground and piped sewage and clean water over an area of 50,000m3—1.5 times the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground playing field. “It was the first time WFP and humanitarian partners faced an emergency of this nature,” says WFP communications officer Donaig Le Du. “When a major natural disaster occurs, such as an earthquake or typhoon, it hits once, then the damage is done and you can assess from there. “Ebola is very different. The response had to be built from projections on how the outbreak could

Images: courtesy of the World Food Programme

Despite this, some wiggle room was found in the frameworks to enable emergent problems to be handled as they cropped up. “A collaborative framework was essential for the overall success of this project,” he says. “Next time, I would take a more incremental approach to developing the requirements of the system… that wouldn’t hold us or the customer to every word of the contract. This would include an Agile methodology and incremental delivery, he says. “Do a bit, test a bit, get the operator or user to see if they like it. Lock it down and build goodness along the way. We’re experimenting now with that methodology, going into our new projects with that in mind.”

5 The WFP was under severe pressure to build hospitals in time to isolate and treat the Ebola virus in Liberia.

EXTREME FACT!

2.85M

6 Monrovia’s poor infrastructure and extreme weather conditions challenged those building the hospitals.

PEOPLE REACHED BY WFP

7 The WFP was chosen to lead The Logistics Cluster, a group of humanitarian organisations that ensured the aid got through to those most in need. As of November 2014, the cluster had transported 50,000m³ of commodities in Ebola‑affected countries.

HOW DOES ‘EXTREMENESS’ IMPACT SUCCESS? A Helmsman Institute study of 32 defence projects that included the Collins Class submarines and Soldier Combat System found Vigilare peaking in complexity across spread, and responders have to adapt constantly to an unpredictable situation. Secondly, when the Ebola outbreak started, people in the field had to be able to work in fear, not knowing exactly what the risks were. As time went on, it became easier, but one of the priorities has been to ensure the staff was safe, especially the ones distributing food in areas of intense and widespread transmission.” Although WFP is accustomed to operating under extreme conditions, the Ebola response was further constrained by the sheer number of people affected (WFP has fed some 1.7 million people since April 2014). “WFP has to transport, store and dispatch much more than food,” Le Du says. “The logistics cluster led by WFP [that] includes aid agencies and NGOs also has to ensure that the medical supplies needed for the health response are prepositioned and delivered in a timely manner all over the Ebola‑affected countries.” Equipment installed in Ebola treatment units also had to be maintenance free, she says. “Sometimes you need to turn off and on your computer, but here, once the equipment is installed, there’s no resetting. Once the patients are admitted for treatment, our technical staff can no longer access the equipment to perform any maintenance.” That also applies to disposing of communications and other technologies used in the response.

most of its dimensions, including technical, context, ambiguity, project management and overall complexity. The same review found projects with more themes, such as creating a system of systems and forcing local manufacture and sourcing, tended to have the worst performance. For instance, the Collins project was the most complex of those surveyed. Read the full report at http://bit.ly/1LUy8Yx.

“Unlike other operations, we cannot repurpose equipment. In Mali, [West Africa], we were able to bring back our satellite terminals, refurbish them and redeploy to the next emergency. Because of the risk of contamination, we cannot do that here. Any equipment that is installed inside an Ebola treatment unit must be destroyed.” Problems on the ground added to the project’s complexity. Trucks bringing in supplies rode over poorly maintained roads often affected by heavy rains. Le Du says project management knowledge is carried over between events. “Looking at the recent emergencies, there is an increasing trend to adapt technology used to the specific context. Prior to deploying staff or equipment, we perform a quick assessment with the support of staff on the ground,” Le Du says. This helps WFP evaluate local resources and laws, import regulations, existing infrastructure and so on to decide which tools, technologies and expertise will be deployed. Mobile phones are playing an ever more important role, especially in the analysis of food security in outbreak areas, she says. “People were called and asked to answer questions regarding their income, situation and the way Ebola had affected their livelihoods. It was a very helpful technology as we wanted to minimise the risk of our staff being exposed to the virus.”

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• MANAGING MEGAPROJECTS

TOO BIG TO FAIL

8 SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL MEGAPROJECT MANAGEMENT WORDS ADELINE TEOH

megaproject might be as big as an ASX 50-listed company, have a budget bigger than the GDP of a country—and fail more often than they succeed. And because megaprojects have such a big impact on lives and economies, they’ve never been more closely scrutinised. We asked world experts how to best run—and survive— your own megaproject.

MEGAPROJECTS AREN’T BIG PROJECTS “Every megaproject is a program,” says Professor Bent Flyvbjerg, Chair of Major Programme Management at England’s University of Oxford. He notes megaprojects are made of smaller projects. Naomi Brookes, Professor of Complex Project Management at the UK’s University of Leeds and chair of Megaproject EU, says megaprojects aren’t even “temporary organisations”, how we understand conventional projects. “At the core of a megaproject lies a special-purpose vehicle that lives and breathes with that project, which can be 50 to 60 years and beyond. We have examples of how megaprojects are bought and sold. Their ownership changes but the special-purpose vehicle remains in charge.”

COMPLEXITY ISN’T THE BIGGEST CAUSE OF FAILURE “The longer the delivery period, the lower the performance in terms of cost overruns, schedule delays and benefit shortfalls,” Flyvbjerg says. Why? Workers turn over more often and the project needs

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WANT MORE? Still keen to manage a megaproject? Check out these resources: How to Successfully Manage Your Megaproject by Brian Relle and Clay Gilge Avoiding Major Project Failure— Turning Black Swans White by Clay Gilge Megaproject Planning and Management: Essential Readings by Bent Flyvbjerg Industrial Megaprojects: Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success by Edward W. Merrow

more technology innovation cycles. “If you want to improve your success on megaprojects, you have to break them down into smaller units and do parallel delivery instead of serial delivery.” For example, “Cost overruns are very common for signature architecture. [But] they did the urban renewal scheme, including the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, on budget, on time.” (Pictured above). Ed Merrow, president of Independent Project Analysis, nominates objectives that are “unachievable by humans” as a warning sign, including “breakneck schedules that are unmeetable”. This also results in high staff turnover from burnout and cut corners that compromise outcomes.

LITTLE FISH DON’T GROW INTO BIG FISH “Megaprojects have an exponential factor,” says Clay Gilge, principal of KPMG’s Major Projects Advisory. “What you did before is not transferable and you don’t get economies of scale.” Stakeholder management also becomes exponentially more time-consuming. Going from six to 30 stakeholders doesn’t take five times as long, it typically takes 10 to 15 times longer due to managing relationships between stakeholders.

WHEN A FAILURE LEADS TO SUCCESS “When we talk about megaproject failure, we just mean a failure to deliver on time and to budget,” remarks Brookes. “It’s only now that

MEGAPROJECTS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD projects such as Hoover Dam [1936] have been around long enough to know what its impact has been on society, which is why we have to be circumspect about success and failure.” Different parties also have different views of success. “Although the project doesn’t get delivered on time and to budget, people can still consider their involvement in it a success. Why do companies like Bechtel continue to make profits?”

ARE YOU SPECIAL ENOUGH TO HANDLE IT? The right person to manage a megaproject has worked on one before. They must also be “competent realists” says Flyvbjerg. Although Oxford offers a degree in megaproject management, Gilge says project managers don’t need specialised training, just preparation. “I’d recommend the team go through a workshop to get them in a mindset of how this is going to be different. They can’t take anything for granted.” Merrow says broad experience helps: “The most successful megaproject managers are generalists and they’re very good at getting other people to share their vision.”

Image: Thinkstock. Infographic illustration: Aleksandar Savic

GIVE STAKEHOLDERS TO SOMEONE ELSE Brookes says relationship management is key, especially “being able to manage people who aren’t necessarily working for you”. “Most project managers are really surprised by how unbelievably political megaprojects are—political in every possible sense of the word,” says Merrow. “It’s best if much of the stakeholder management process is off the project manager’s plate. In too many cases, the project director has two full-time jobs: the project and managing the stakeholders. Those projects usually fail.”

RISK, RISK, RISK “Some say megaproject management is risk management,” says Flyvbjerg. “A 10 per cent overrun on a $10 million project will not knock anyone over, but on a $100 billion project it becomes a political, organisational and reputational problem. There’s a completely different set of risks and they’re much harder to manage.” But governance is a big part of mitigating threats, he says.

GET IT IN WRITING “Don’t underestimate the importance of project structure from a delivery standpoint and the importance of having tight, integrated contracts,” Gilge says. “You’ll go back to that contract, even if the project is going well. Make sure everyone on the project team understands how it affects decisions.”

35.2 KM³ Hoover Dam’s holding capacity

$US

24.8 BN

Manhattan Project (that produced the first nuclear weapons) cost in 2015 dollars, adjusted from $US1.9bn in 1945

1,000,000 SQM Square Kilometre Array radio telescope collecting area

165 KM

The length of China’s Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway

Large Hadron Collider diameter

8 YEARS 1 MONTH 25 DAYS Time from Kennedy’s address to Congress to landing a man on the Moon

$US1.5 TR

830

Cost of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program over 55 years

The height of Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE, the tallest building in the world

project MANAGER 23

• CROSS-CULTURAL TEAMS

D IFFERENT STROKES AS THE WORLD SHRINKS, WE MUST LEARN TO WORK WITH TEAMMATES WHOSE CULTURAL FOUNDATIONS CHALLENGE US WORDS LEON GETTLER

24 AIPM.COM.AU

ur globalised economy is leading to the formation of more cross-cultural project teams and a risk of greater conflict—even by accident. Some conflicts might result from differences between ethnic groups or between departments and branch offices, each protecting their fiefdom. When PepsiCo advertised Pepsi in Taiwan with the ad “Come Alive With Pepsi”, they failed to realise it would be translated into Chinese as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead”. This somewhat comical example stands in contrast to the American oil-rig supervisor in Indonesia who shouted at a worker to take a boat to shore. No-one berates an Indonesian in public, so a mob of outraged workers chased the supervisor with axes. When President George Bush went to Japan with Lee Iacocca and other American business magnates in 1992, they directly made explicit demands on Japanese leaders. But to the Japanese, it is rude and a sign of ignorance or desperation to lower oneself to make direct demands. It damaged negotiations and confirmed to the Japanese that Americans were barbarians. Research from Asialink, an organisation that promotes understanding of Asian companies and culture, found that Australian businesses needed more practical help to understand the region (for example, ‘starter packs’ that explained tax, regulation and employment laws of the region). And it found almost a third of businesses lacked sectoral data on Asia, while 37 per cent of corporates wanted training on adapting to Asian business cultures. So how best to deal with cross-cultural conflict? Dr Sarbari Bordia from the ANU Research School of Management says culture cuts across boundaries. “There are several layers of culture, such as ethnic, professional, organisational,” Dr Bordia says. She recommends the following steps that consider training, communication and selection to handle cross-cultural differences.

TRAINING AND EXPOSURE

Organisations must expose their people to different cultures. “There is no shortcut,” Dr Bordia says. “You can learn about culture forever, but unless you are exposed to a situation that is real life and multicultural, it’s hard to work with it.

Culture is the way we interact, the way we do things... but language goes deeper than that. It has an imprint in our way of thinking.” “Probably the best way is to train your people to deal with other cultures, to make sure people understand that other people have different points of view, that there is a multiplicity of ways to do the one thing and no one way may be better than the other.” Training can be through osmosis. “Just working with people from other cultures will make people realise there are many ways of doing the same thing and they are equally good.” Dr Bordia also recommends cross-cultural internships. “Send people off on cross-cultural assignments, either within the country or in international locations, without too much responsibility. That gives them an exposure to cross-cultural matters without having to make strong decisions.”

LEARN THE LANGUAGE

People dealing with different nationalities on their teams should learn language basics. “Culture is the way we interact, the way we do things. It shows up in our behaviour but language goes deeper than that. It has an imprint in our way of thinking. We learn to think in the language or languages we are familiar with as a child.” How we speak has an impact on our thought processes. Dr Bordia says this gives team members a better understanding of everyone else’s perspectives: “They need to have a working knowledge of the other language. The first team that goes into Ghana, will they have working knowledge of whatever dialect is being spoken in that particular region? Probably not. But if

project MANAGER 25

• CROSS-CULTURAL TEAMS

they have a working knowledge of a few other languages, they are likely to pick up the local language faster.”

SELECT TEAM MEMBERS CAREFULLY

“When you put together a multi-ethnic group, there is the ethnic culture that is different, but if all of them are engineers, they have a common professional culture,” she says. “If they are a mixed-expertise group, there is a double whammy with culture. An accountant thinks differently from a lawyer, who thinks differently from a doctor, and, increasingly, these organisational or career-related cultural differences are necessary to put together entrepreneurial teams. They could all be Australians but it could still create cultural issues. They express their views differently because of their training.” Managers should ensure an even mix of groups. “The more cultures you have in a team, the less likely you will have ‘groupism’. They might work very well together because there is no predominant culture. But if you have three people from one place and two from another, the two might feel they are undervalued,” explains Dr Bordia. She suggests leaders call out at the start that team members will have perspectives informed by their cultural heritage and that this might challenge orthodoxy but lead to better decisions. “There is a multiplicity of ways to do the one thing and no one way may be better than the other.”

MORE LEVELS OF COMMUNICATION EQUAL MORE DIFFERENCES

Dr Bordia says everybody is “venturing outside their zone” and dealing with others from different cultures. “You might end up in conflict but everyone is getting educated, and the best way to learn is to have negative experiences. If you don’t get into a cross-cultural conflict, you don’t know that you are producing the right cultural behaviour.”

26 AIPM.COM.AU

CONFLICT IS INEVITABLE

“Companies shouldn’t be surprised—cross‑cultural conflicts are inevitable, especially if it’s bicultural because it becomes a case of ‘us versus them’. It’s bound to create some sort of tussle. Expecting that is the best preparation.” Dr Louise Kippist from the University of Western Sydney School of Business says companies that identify cultural differences upfront will build higher-performing teams, especially if you emphasise what is common. “You need to be aware of it, and managing it is building on those strengths,” Dr Kippist says. “Being aware of what we might say in western cultures about being direct and open and sharing ideas is important; for other cultures, that’s confronting. So it’s about putting them on the table and talking about them and being explicit about the differences and how you can work together.”

TURN DIFFERENCES INTO A POSITIVE

Dr Kippist says cross-cultural teams shake things up by bringing diversity and different ideas into the mix. “Conflict isn’t always bad,” she says. “It needs to be recognised when conflict gets out of hand or increases, or that there are people who feel a conflict with others or feel left out. Conflict can be [positive] when it’s recognised that there are tensions between people and why the tensions are there and what can we get out of that. How we use that energy in the tension, that different perspective, is often very helpful, as annoying as it can sometimes be.”

RED FLAGS FOR CROSS-CULTURAL CONFLICT Non-verbal misunderstandings Non-verbal communication, like tone of voice, body language, gestures, posture and facial expressions, have an impact on communication. Just as verbal rules differ across cultures, so do non-verbal cues. Be aware that your non-verbal communication might insult others. Some team members may come from cultures where there is nothing wrong with revealing strong emotions and making prolonged eye contact or even touching them on the arm. Others might come from cultures where people mask emotions with a poker face, use monotone speech and avoid eye contact.

High context versus low context Team members from high-context cultures such as Japan, China, Mexico and Arabic nations tend to rely on non-verbal communication to relay their message. In contrast, people from low-context cultures such as Australia, North America, Germany and Switzerland usually prefer to use verbal and written communication. The verbal communications are different. The manager from Japan is more likely to say “That will be difficult”, but an Australian would say “That can’t be done”. The manager from Japan is still saying no, but in a different way.

Illustration: Tang Yau Hoong

You can learn about culture forever, but unless you are exposed to a situation that is real life and multicultural, it’s hard to work with it.”

AIPM Corporate Membership Maximise the benefits Speak to your team today about the benefits of becoming an AIPM corporate member. Corporate membership can support your organisation’s learning and development culture by providing employees with discounted professional membership and an internationally recognised certification program.

VISIT AIPM.COM.AU AND CHECK UNDER THE MEMBERSHIP TAB FOR MORE DETAILS.

• LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

FIND YOUR

LEADERSHIP STYLE

HOW CAN YOU CREATE TRUST AND RESPECT AS THE HEAD OF YOUR PROJECT TEAM, WITHOUT SLIPPING GEARS? WORDS FRAN MOLLOY

eadership is an elusive quality—hard to define and even harder to learn. AIPM’s Tasmanian Chapter President and 2015 AIPM National Conference Chair Michael King’s long leadership career includes managing local, national and international projects for private and government clients as well as international aid and World Bank ventures. King, MAIPM, CPPD, says that project management has transcended its earlier, transactional nature to become a profession where leadership skills are critical in getting the best from a project team. “Good leadership is inherent in a well-rounded, experienced team, and having that kind of team then leads to delivering a successful outcome that meets your client’s objectives,” he says. King’s philosophy on forming teams echoes some of the ideas proposed by bestselling leadership

28 AIPM.COM.AU

author Dan Pink, who argued that people are motivated to perform better, when they are part of something that is “bigger than they are”.

PICK TEAMS WITH THE FUTURE IN MIND

King says that great project leaders pick teams, not just to get the right mix of people, but also with an eye to forming the leaders of the future. “Some people prefer to focus on the role they play within a team, but others will go on to be excellent leaders,” he says. “These are the people that you need to support and mentor through that process, and indeed promote their skill sets to other people.” Great leaders don’t hold back those who outgrow their own team or organisation, he added. “Losing a good person from your team or organisation can actually be a valued outcome —developing somebody to that level is a feather in your cap, and can lead to the space for the evolution of the next leader within your team.”

BRING THE TEAM TOGETHER

King says that a critical part of good leadership involves communication—and he believes it has to be two-way.

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“Leaders have to make sure that everybody understands what’s going on. Often an effective way to do that is by questioning everything that bounces back—if a team member says, how will we address a certain problem, I say—how would YOU address it?” King’s method gives team members permission to think, to perhaps make mistakes, but also to come up with creative ideas. That’s a leadership style that author Liz Wiseman, President of leadership research The Wiseman Group, calls ‘the liberator.’ “A workplace liberator creates an environment where people feel empowered to do their very best work—and where good things happen as a result,” Wiseman wrote in the bestselling leadership book Multipliers.

Image: iStock

CULTIVATE KEY LEADERSHIP SKILLS

Tony Shepherd, Chairman of the WestConnex Delivery Authority and former President of the Business Council of Australia, believes that leadership and strategic thinking are both the most difficult skills to develop—and the most important. “They require the capability to deal with the micro issues while not losing sight of the macro

towards meaningful work, mastery and autonomy to gain maximum motivation. 3. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven R. Covey Learn the mindset for a self-mastery paradigm shift. 4. Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence By Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, Annie McKee Characteristics like

empathy and selfawareness let great leaders connect with others through their ability to drive emotions in a positive direction to get results. 5. Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman Some leaders drain productivity and energy from their teams, but others magnify their teams’ abilities, motivation, and successes.

goals, and the capability to carefully balance risk and return,” he said in a recent address at the University of Sydney. Shepherd says that the skills to develop, execute and govern projects are partly about strong technical and project management skills and disciplines, but effective and strong leadership is just as important for project success. His three key ingredients for effective project leadership include: • A clear and concise view of what you want to achieve and what success means. • Timely reporting and effective governance that gives proper oversight of the project. • Thorough planning in all project aspects, from financial and governmental to logistics and stakeholder relations. There are just as many leadership styles as there are best-selling leadership books; and Tony Shepherd’s focus on a clear vision is one that Stephen Covey describes in 7 Habits as “beginning with the end in mind”. Shepherd also says that stakeholder engagement is a critical skill—and he believes that top leaders learn the art of bringing stakeholders with them, dealing with their genuine concerns and compromising on the non-essentials while holding ground on the essentials. “In our complex and over-governed world it is rarely possible to keep everybody happy,” he says. “Project leaders must have the courage to continue in the face of often overt opposition while retaining integrity and winning the support of the majority.”

project MANAGER 29

• CROWDFUNDING

BUILDING UP BACKERS Prepping a product for market on a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter or Pozible is emerging as an exciting area for project managers. But Kickstarter says almost two-thirds of its projects aren’t funded and few of the rest ship on time, while some fail to make anything. Many novice entrepreneurs learn the hard way that strong project management is essential to crowdfunding success.

INTERVIEWS NATE COCHRANE

VERONICA RIDGE EDITOR ISSIMO MAGAZINE

Why use Pozible? To validate the idea. We raised $12,000—we couldn’t have got that from friends and family. And it’s a philanthropic thing that, in 2013, was new and exciting. And because Pozible is Australian, and that provided certainty. What were your steps? We made a video pitch; it had to be clear and concise so backers would connect with it. We found most people wanted their name in the premiere magazine ($100 level). But we offered a launch party for just $25 more and only 25 people subscribed—it cost us $3000 and was a lot of work. What would you do differently? We had problems with Apple and went through their system 20 times, so the magazine wasn’t ready for the launch party. People should ensure they don’t make the timing too tight for their promises. How did your newspaper experience prepare you? As editor of The Age Epicure, I was always interviewing people or doing speeches, and that has improved our profile. If you’re not determined to stand up in front of people, you need someone in your organisation who is. And backers? We always got back to them immediately. We also had an Android magazine, but it was difficult if the reader didn’t have the latest version—we always refunded their money promptly. There’s no excuse in the digital world not to be in touch with your readers and treat each of them as personal friends.

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ROB CROWDER FOUNDER SMASH WEARABLES

You raised $87,704 of a $200,000 goal to create a sports wearable. Where to now? I pitched to eight investors and the feedback was positive. A question was: “Can you prove it improves a person’s game?” The evidence was there but it was a manual process to extract it, so I had to show it in simple charts. Explain your critical path through the Kickstarter campaign. The first milestone was a feasibility study—can it do what I think it can, like recognising a shot? We chose components, wrote software and drew up its design. For stakeholders, we spent a lot of time building the site that told the narrative and a video. What were your initial considerations? I could build a rough wristband, software on a laptop and a bad-looking app, or I could tell a compelling story through video and prototypes so people could connect with it. When was it obvious that you had to rehome the project or abandon it? It was about time and money. I’m not 23 and won’t sleep under a desk and eat beans. I have a full-time job and a young family that take my time. I’m still going but I’ve slowed development. I’ve lost a bit of time and money, but I’m hopeful. And stakeholders? They’re passionate, supportive (mostly), vocal and they want you to do well. Customers don’t always have the answers, but they’re very warm—especially if you’re genuine with your story.

RegPM NOT JUST

your average

PROJECT MANAGER

I wish I had done AIPM’s RegPM certification

INTERVIEWS IN PROGRESS

VISIT AIPM.COM.AU TODAY FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW YOU CAN STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD.

• CAREER CENTRE

A QUESTION OF ETHICS DOING THE RIGHT THING IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS DOING A PROJECT RIGHT WORDS LEON GETTLER

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The enemy of ethics is not greed or dishonesty but unthinking practice.”

WANT MORE? Check yourself against the AIPM code of ethics at www.aipm.com.au/ about-us/governance.

of trust in their competency and values is the absolute starting position.” What are the consequences of not being ethical? Simon Longstaff, Executive Director of the St James Ethics Centre, says the most striking example of consequences was the global financial crisis. “What people underestimate are the practical implications of ethical failure,” Longstaff says. “The global financial crisis was not a failure of regulation, it was a failure of ethics. You can look at that in terms of massive financial loss, but you could also more properly take into account the impact on the lives of people who were innocently going about their business.” He says people lost their livelihoods because others “thought it was okay to pretend that below-investment-grade junk was actually investment grade”. “If you bring it back to the individual project, you can be pursuing what seems to be a good end by quite wrong means. And you suddenly find that what was supposed to be a helpful act subverted by the inattention given to ethics, it cashes out in financial costs and in terms of adverse social impact.” Longstaff advises project managers to ask whose interests are at stake. “The enemy of ethics is not greed or dishonesty but unthinking practice,” he says. “There is as much of that in the world of project management as there is anything else.” Project managers should have systems in place to handle ethical issues. “A good project manager, when they confront some aberrational problem, should be dealing with it in a structure designed to anticipate [that] these things happen. It should be a normal part of what you do.”

Image: iStock

rojects risk running off the rails if they’re not grounded in ethics, and juggling resources is no excuse, says Dr Richard Lucas. “[Project managers’] intentions are really good but they are ill-equipped,’’ says Dr Lucas, Assistant Professor in the faculty of Information Sciences and Engineering at the University of Canberra. He has found that many project managers are not prepared for ethical dilemmas. “I frequently encounter two responses: one is a failure to recognise a moral problem, and the other response is ‘Gee I didn’t know that was going to happen when everything goes bad’.” He says industries such as health have strong ethical frameworks, but the likes of public services often turn people into project managers without certification. “They have good intentions, but they see project management as outside their sphere, and it’s the same with other professional groups. They see their profession as separate from the project management story. “A lot of people have a clear view of their personal ethics but they have difficulty applying that into their professional field.” As well as targeting areas such as honesty, honour, professionalism, duty of care and fairness, project managers must weigh the moral worth of a project. “The very first thing they ought to do is measure the morality of what they’re doing. They should be more careful at the start to take all the stakeholder interests into account and take into account due care.” He says that is usually skipped over. “The project comes and it gets accepted without question. And once it’s started, it’s impossible to stop.” He cites a colleague who assesses the moral worth of each project three ways: the company, those he works with and the project itself. He has been in business for 20 years and never been busier; clients know where he stands. Dr Lucas says project managers using an ethical framework are more likely to be trusted. “These relationships are personal relationships. That sense

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Are you getting the most out of your AIPM membership? Did you know that as a member of the AIPM, among other great benefits you get access to: Our members-only LinkedIn group, where over 4,000 of our best-connected members share ideas and network Be part of a global project management profession community Access to our industry-leading project management Jobs Centre Our Member Advantage Program, where you can save with program partners including Qantas and Virgin Australia (associate members, full members and AIPM fellows only) LOG IN TO YOUR MYAIPM ACCOUNT ON THE AIPM WEBSITE TODAY.

• AIPM NEWS

THE AIPM

UPDATE NEW INTERNATIONAL CERTIFICATION The AIPM has been approved as the local certification body for the International Project Management Association (IPMA) in Australia. IPMA provides project management certification that businesses and organisations around the world recognise. This is particularly important for AIPM corporate members who have an international presence. The AIPM is now endorsed to conduct IPMA certification as the Australian International Certifying Body (AICB). There are now two complementary AIPM pathways to certification in Australia: AIPM Registered Project Manager Award (RegPM). IPMA certification for those seeking international certification. The AICB offers four IPMA certifications: Certified Projects Director, Certified Senior Project Manager, Certified Project Manager and Certified Project Management Associate. Each IPMA certification candidate is individually assessed by independent, AIPM‑recognised assessors. Interpersonal skills and behavioural qualities, together with contextual and technical areas are considered alongside with project management experience and qualifications. The AIPM shares many common objectives with IPMA—particularly the development of world-class project management standards and practices. For further information please contact Eugenia Postoenko at ipma@aipm.com.au or visit www.aipm.com.au.

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HAVE A DEVIL OF A TIME Fresh from being named as one of Lonely Planet’s top 10 regions to visit in 2015, Tasmania is busy readying itself to host the best project managers from around the world at the 2015 AIPM national conference. This year’s conference will be hosted at the world-class Wrest Point Convention Centre from October 11-14, and will include the announcement of the national winners of the 2015 PMAA Awards. Not only will the conference be hosted on the scenic banks of the Derwent River, it will feature the most dynamic line-up of keynote speakers on record. The program is packed with the likes of Pru Sanderson (CEO of the Design Institute of Australia), Peter Newman (Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University) and an international keynote from Jan Chodas (Director for the Office of Safety and Mission Success at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory), making this a conference any project manager can ill afford to miss. The earlybird discount booking for AIPM members is still open, but you will need to be quick as it ends on July 15. There has been added excitement around this year’s conference as its mascot, the Tasmanian Devil, has been on an international tour spreading the word of the conference at some of the world’s most recognisable landmarks (pictured above, inset). You can follow its progress on Twitter at the hashtag #tasdev and the conference hashtag #aipm2015. Visit www.aipm2015.com.au for more information.

AIPM CONTACTS BOARD MEMBERS National President Ian Sharpe, MAIPM, CPPD national_president@ aipm.com.au

National Director Trevor Alex, FAIPM, CPPD ND2@aipm.com.au

QLD MEMBERS SHAPE THEIR CHAPTER Earlier this year, over 50 AIPM members attended an event at the United Services Club in Queensland, to shape the future of the state’s chapter in 2015. The CEO of the AIPM, Yvonne Butler, attended the event and spoke about the AIPM direction for 2015-2020. “We exist to help further their professional needs, so it is so great to be able to once again meet so many passionate members and get their input to the direction of our institute,” she says. A key feature of the event involved members workshopping core topics critical to the future of the AIPM, including membership, events and special interests. The AIPM is committed to improving opportunities for members to have their say and will be working on better ways to engage members across the country throughout the year.

Left and below: The Wrest Point Convention Centre Hobart will host the AIPM conference in October.

NEW AWARDS CATEGORY The AIPM Project Management Achievement Awards (PMAAs) will have a different look in 2015, with the newly created Project Management Research Award. The new category will recognise excellence in the areas of research innovation, complexity, the challenges faced and the value of the research to the project management community. It will aim to engage academics conducting research, and will align with the similar categories at the apfpm and IPMA awards. The new award will join the rest of the annual award categories as the highest recognition for projects and project managers in Australia. If you want to have your (or your team’s) work recognised, submit your entry by May 15 at www.aipm. com.au/awards.

National Director Gary Yorke, MAIPM, ND3@aipm.com.au

ACT Chapter President David Bryant, MAIPM, CPPD act_president@aipm.com.au NSW Chapter President Chris Mansfield, FAIPM, CPPD nsw_president@aipm.com.au Acting NT Chapter President Mark Dodt, MAIPM, CPPD nt_president@aipm.com.au QLD Chapter President Mark Patch, MAIPM, CPPD qld_president@aipm.com.au SA Chapter President Sami Abou-Hamdan, MAIPM, CPPM sa_president@aipm.com.au Tas Chapter President Michael King, MAIPM, CPPD tas_president@aipm.com.au Vic Chapter President Michael Ratcliffe, FAIPM vic_president@aipm.com.au WA Chapter President Chris Carman, MAIPM chris@benchmarkprojects.com.au

NATIONAL OFFICE Chief Executive Officer Yvonne Butler (02) 8288 8750 ybutler@aipm.com.au

National Events Manager Linda Chiarella (02) 8288 8758 lchiarella@aipm.com.au

Membership Administrator Brianna Edwards (02) 8288 8752 bedwards@aipm.com.au

National Manager Marketing and Communications Michael Martin (02) 8288 8751 mmartin@aipm.com.au

Certification Coordinator Ivana Lozancic (02) 8288 8760 ilozancic@aipm.com.au

Financial Controller Andrew Cooke (02) 8288 8753 acooke@aipm.com.au

CHAPTERS ACT Coordinator Narelle Muller 0418 243 418. act_chapter@aipm.com.au

SA Coordinator Michelle Pearson (08) 8223 6349 sa_chapter@aipm.com.au

NSW Coordinator Robyn Tuladhar 0431 065 212 nsw_chapter@aipm.com.au

Tas Coordinator TBC tas_chapter@aipm.com.au

NT Coordinator Catriona Silverstone 0415 690 182 nt_chapter@aipm.com.au

Vic Coordinator Olimpia Watkins (03) 9369 2160 vic_chapter@aipm.com.au

Qld Coordinator Andrea Shipp 0448 033 413 qld_chapter@aipm.com.au

WA Coordinator Martine Peasley (08) 9447 5663 wa_chapter@aipm.com.au

FOR ALL AIPM CONTACTS visit www.aipm.com.au

project MANAGER 35

• THE OFFICE

GATES

CRASHED WORDS MARTIN VAUGHAN

DESPITE OUR BEST PLANNING EFFORTS, WE CAN END UP WITH UNDEFINED PROJECTS IN UNCONTROLLED ENVIRONMENTS. SO WHAT’S A PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE TO DO?

t’s done,” says Sally the PMO manager with a big smile. “After 12 months of workshops and mapping, our new IT Governance Framework is finally complete. We have configured EPM [enterprise project management], we have the portfolio steering committee approving new projects, we have the annual budgeting process in place, we have the decision gates mandated with entry criteria established, we have standardised project plans, business case and funding approval processes, we have the SharePoint project request list in place. We have management buy-in, project managers seem supportive… we are finished.”

THE WAKE-UP CALL

Anyone working in a PMO knows what a huge achievement this is and how difficult it can be to achieve. Surely if we define the process, configure the tools and do all the planning, then project delivery should follow? If only it was that simple. What happens when we try to use this with a new, somewhat undefined product development project? Until development starts (iteratively of course) we won’t truly know the scope. Delivery dates will be market driven and new releases are then likely to happen every three months. The CEO may have already announced the project to the board (and the media). With such high-level commitment, funding will need to be found. It might even provide a major new revenue stream and could be the highest priority project there is. The only certainty is that it will tie up some of the company’s brightest resources, people will want to work on it and, for a while at least, it will be the number-one cool project. Suddenly, the governance stuff goes out the window. The PMO is told the project will be done

36 AIPM.COM.AU

“collaboratively”, which really means without the usual documentation. The CEO has ensured building has already started, and the product trial is in two months.

THE HINGES AND HURDLES

PMOs trying to integrate Agile methods may have already grappled with some of these issues: • Funding approval: most finance departments require a degree of rigour in justifying expenditure. With Agile, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem, but with an uncertain project the business case itself would need to be iterative, with funding approval only sought for the next stage and requests revisited along the way. While governance (decision making) wouldn’t change, the artefacts relied upon definitely would. The business case should justify whether to undertake a project, but for the ‘CEO says’ project, one could argue that there isn’t much point writing one. • Summary reporting: many EPM systems and reporting processes allocate a stage or gate to their project, but some projects may be in design, build and deploy all at the same time. This is a problem for consolidated reporting, particularly if part of the portfolio is done with different methodologies. • Stage-gate entry criteria: although the stagegate definition can change between organisations and even departments, generally there are a number of entry criteria to be completed. With both Agile and uncertain projects, these will be almost impossible to complete. The concept of gates being ready before you can commence the next stage is not changed, but the expectations on entry criteria do. • Administration flexibility: a degree of flexibility in how governance is applied

Illustration: Andrew Joyner

“

is required. While the PMO might try pushing back on uncertain projects, they won’t always win that battle with the CEO or board. • Funding allocation: this relates to people’s ability to work on projects. As a general rule of thumb, people won’t work on unfunded projects or internal tasks. We have seen board-level, top 10 priority projects flounder in large organisations because management-level games have seen them unfunded at the working level. Strict funding rules can affect uncertainty if the system denies them the ability to engage resources or vendors. • Procurement best practice: procurement specialists need to protect the interests of the organisation by carefully specifying contracts, transferring risk and pushing vendors to fixed price engagements. Uncertain projects will certainly challenge procurement practice, as it may end up requiring the buyer to take on risk and engagements to become either “time and materials” in an uncontrolled environment or innovative performance-based approaches.

MOVE THE POSTS

So what does Sally say when her beautiful framework is passed over? While she understands best practice, her job is to assist project managers, especially those with challenging projects. “You are going to need governance, it’s just that the normal gates aren’t going to work for you. What is your next key decision point on the project? How much funding is approved and who is making decisions now?” She gives the project manager a pen and encourages him to explain. Martin Vaughan (AIPM, CPPD) is the Managing Director of Core Consulting Group, a consulting business specialising in building project, program and portfolio management capability.

WANT MORE? If you’d like to debate or discuss issues like these, join the AIPM PMO special interest group. For more details, visit www.aipm.com.au or contact your local state convener: ACT: Paul Toomey, Paul.Toomey@au.fujitsu.com VIC: Gary Yorke, gary.yorke@gmail.com NSW: Joe Bond, nsw_pmo@aipm.com.au NT: Mark Dodt, NT_president@aipm.com.au SA: Tony Wood, tony.wood@accent.on.net TAS: Nerida Plumpton, nerida.plumpton@taswater.com.au WA: Mirella Luketich, Mirella.Luketich@iluka.com

project MANAGER 37

• CHAPTER PRESIDENT CHAT EXTREME PROJECTS

NSW CHRIS MANSFIELD

TAS MICHAEL KING

When I was informed of this edition’s topic, extreme project management, I thought, “Is this another buzzword for a method of managing complex or uncertain projects, is it a fad, or is it fundamental?” There are numerous iterative, incremental and phased approaches we as project managers may use—Agile, lean, extreme, traditional, and so on. Regardless of the methodology employed, careful consideration must be given to the overall project objectives, time, cost, quality and risk, as well as the roles and responsibilities of all involved. When I look at some of the characteristics of an extreme project manager there is a strong emphasis on the softer skills, including negotiating, communicating with all parties and dealing with obstacles. These are fundamental skill sets project managers use every day as part of stakeholder engagement and effective project communication. The AIPM has developed standards that encompass a mixture of technical, contextual and behavioural competencies, all of which are required to manage increasingly complex and extreme projects.

On extreme projects, go with the A-team— and know where to get more professionals when you need them at short notice. It comes down to knowing good people; and our chapter gatherings are great places to meet them. Look to credentialled project professionals; if you hire them at the start, you’ll have the confidence to move forward.

I have previously worked on projects for relief and development agencies, and that tendering process used two envelopes—the first held the names of team members. Only once the best team was chosen was the second envelope with the budget opened. And the best team wasn’t necessarily the most expensive. Turning to October’s national conference in Tasmania, we’re excited that Jan Chodas, Deputy Director for the Office of Safety and Mission Success at NASA (see Project Manager Aug-Sept 2014), will present on the topic of risk. We’re programming a defence and aerospace stream to complement her visit, and workshops on certification and for emerging project professionals are also in development. The conference venue has shifted from the Grand Chancellor to Wrest Point Hotel Casino to avoid clashes with sports finals, school holidays and elections. Talk about your extreme projects!

ACT DAVID BRYANT

NT MARK DODT

On the topic of extreme project management, you would be forgiven for thinking Canberra has nothing to offer. You’re right; the most arduous conditions for our projects are probably related to a faulty whiteboard. But when you look closer, you see programs and projects that are extreme in terms of predictability of outcome and level of risk. The Department of Defence is currently in its initial phases of replacing its Submarine Fleet, which will be the most technically complex military program ever undertaken in Australia. And the Department of Health has a program to change the behaviour of every Australian with the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR). The key message here is that the project management discipline scales from small personal projects through to extreme initiatives that touch every Australian. The AIPM challenge is to ensure that more people are aware of the discipline, so we can reduce the risk associated with projects, extreme or otherwise.

In the Territory, several factors such as location, size, timeline and complexity contribute to making a project extreme. The primary challenges faced during projects are material supply lines, extreme weather and resourcing the right people with the right skill set and then retaining that resource. I think in order for an extreme project to be successful, accurate scheduling is essential. Technology can help with this, for example building information modelling (BIM). Stakeholder management with clear, concise communication is also key. A good example of an extreme project being done very well here is the Ichthys gas development, worth more than US$35 billion. It has three separate projects involved in the one program, including offshore facilities and an 889-kilometre pipeline, which links up to the facilities in Darwin. The onshore facilities are made up of modules floated by state-of-the-art pontoon boats. It also has a huge project team, which itself can become very complex.

Regardless of the methodology employed, careful consideration must be given to the overall project objectives, time, cost, quality and risk.” 38 AIPM.COM.AU

The retreat of manufacturers from Victoria hammered the state’s economic base. But nimble companies making buildings in factories are turning around some of those losses. Modern prefabricated buildings aren’t creaking demountables—they can be precision buildings made under controlled conditions and assembled from flatpacks or transported

near complete (like the Hickory prefab project pictured above). Melbourne leads in prefab manufacture and deployment, from backyard sheds to multi-storey office blocks. We’re in talks with PrefabAus, the peak body for the offsite construction industry featured in this issue. We hope to bring an event to soon to introduce our members to international prefabrication trends and the management challenges for this exciting project delivery approach. And a point on extreme projects: they don’t have to be huge or remote—this isn’t

Discovery TV’s Bear Grylls! Extreme projects can hit closer to home than you might think. This can include a project with a very diverse stakeholder group, like a highly contested piece of urban infrastructure where operating in the political landscape is just as hard as operating in a remote geography. Or where extremely tight time lines can leave the team dealing with corner-cutting and huge stresses to meet deadlines. No matter how everyday the project is, it’s important to identify distortions or extreme dimensions early, and to plan accordingly.

QLD MARK PATCH

SA SAMI ABOU-HAMDAN

WA CHRIS CARMAN

When you put different cultures, alternate work practices, and implicit differences in quality together, you can be faced with multiple challenges on complex projects. I’ve delivered extreme multi-national projects with components delivered from five different countries, and the multicultural element certainly created some issues. In complex projects, I think inspirational leadership is essential. For example, when times are difficult and the workload seems impossible, leadership can highlight the strategic benefits that the program will deliver and make it real at the tactical level for members of the project. The success of the program will often fall back on how well we chose the leader, as he or she will play a critical role. In extreme projects adaptability is also essential so that the methodology and processes can be adapted to align with the desired outcome. Significant changes happen in complex projects and you have to be able to redirect the river, so to speak.

Reflecting on the World Food Programme’s (WFP) response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa, I see parallels with South Australia’s Hawker water desalination plant. In both cases, facilities were built in extremely remote locations. And in the case of the desalination plant, Indigenous landowners were consulted and brought on to the project. Although the scales and ramp-up times are different, planning benefited from having a charter at the start. In extreme projects that are heavily constrained or complex, it’s vital to establish governance upfront because you can’t wait for a decision from head office when you’re in the middle of nowhere. Other takeaways are to obtain resources locally, and that includes training and skills. Just as WFP hired local staff, the desal plant also trained local Aboriginal people as apprentices. Finally, engaging contractors early in the piece to ensure continuity of supply is very important.

The most complex thing about projects is people. This is particularly true when there’s technical complexity, because stakeholders often don’t understand details. Accordingly, massaging competing agendas into line is the most difficult component a project manager faces. Project professionals are often so immersed in detail they ignore the external environment. But we must understand that stakeholders include everybody affected by the change we’re overseeing—that goes beyond the sponsor or whoever foots the bill to the community, and they must all be managed. You must implement communication and consultation plans to see your project succeed. A lot of projects fail simply because people don’t communicate in a timely manner. Just look at the Ebola case in the cover story: the World Food Programme facilitated communications with two million people, and each one was a stakeholder. But it goes further because the outbreak affects the entire world.

Image: courtesy of Hickory

VIC MICHAEL RATCLIFFE

project MANAGER 39

• TALKING POINT

A PROFESSIONAL APPROACH INTERVIEW SOPHIE HULL

DAVID BRYANT MAIPM, CPPD, ACT CHAPTER PRESIDENT

avid has been in the ICT industry for 35 years and involved in project management for 25 of those years. He has conducted reviews of IT governance, organisational maturity, enterprise architectures, business systems and problem projects for many federal government departments. He is the AIPM ACT Chapter President and Chair of its Communications Council.

Why is the AIPM seeking to get project management recognised as a profession? Too many individuals are changing their job title to project manager simply because they have decided this is a good description. No-one would think of changing their job title to accountant or surveyor on a whim. The AIPM wants project management to be recognised as a profession rather than just a job description. The definition of a profession, from Professions Australia, is a good starting point: “A profession is a disciplined group of individuals who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as… possessing special knowledge and skills in a widely recognised body of learning derived from research, education and training at a high level.” What is the AIPM doing in order to reach this aspiration of seeing project management recognised as a profession? In addition to investigating membership of Professions Australia, the AIPM is looking to introduce five elements of project management professionalism. We want AIPM members to recognise that professionalism involves a change in our mindset. We believe an AIPM PM professional uses a recognised PM body of learning (AIPM competency standards); possesses special knowledge and skills (AIPM certification programs); is disciplined (AIPM member commitment to continuous professional development); provides a high standard of services to the public and in dealing with professional colleagues (AIPM certification register and post-nominals provide an assurance of quality); and adheres to ethical standards (AIPM code of ethics). Project managers work across such diverse industries. What ethical standards bring them together as a unit? Ethical standards cross industries and professions. For example, the AIPM ethic “be honest and trustworthy” is applicable across all industries. It sounds simple, but how many project managers have submitted a schedule to their project board that they knew was unachievable? This action is at odds with this principle.

WANT MORE? For the full definition of a profession from Professions Australia, visit www.professions. com.au/defineprofession.html.

40 AIPM.COM.AU

What professional values have you personally made an effort to foster throughout your career? I have always tried to be honest and trustworthy. In a previous job, I was asked by a client to commit to a schedule and cost I knew was unachievable. It was a competitive situation and I would not commit. We lost the business. The fallout in the short term was very uncomfortable. In the longer term we were better off as a business. We developed a view that it is better to lose than to win bad business.

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